You start with a pinch pot. This is something I would say have the class do all together. This site has a nice pinch pot visual shown below. Here is a step by step process of the monster. This site also has good examples of finished pinch pots that are fired in the kiln, ours were air dry clay that students painted with acrylic paint.
I show them examples of the different positions of the monsters of the directions the mouth can face and how their are endless possibilities.
Then we have to talk about scoring and slipping. I talk about that the slip is like the glue for clay and that if you do not use it things will fall off!
Once the clay is dry they get to paint! What fun!